Atop the Popularity Scale
by practical cynicism
Summary: When Lily sits by the fire with her friends one night, she recalls her firstyear days when she still wasn’t as popular as she already was…and remembered who got her there. Reviews are accepted very graciously…CH4 up
1. More than a Geek

Atop the Popularity Scale 

**By Dimantrien**

**Disclaimer: **Standard disclaimers apply…

**Rating: **PG 13

**Dedication: **To Patricia, because if she didn't do the Sorcerer's Stone for her book report in fifth (or was it sixth?) grade, I never would have found about Harry Potter and the marauders. (awwww, ain't that sweet -_-) Also to my other demented friends *gets whacked at the back of the head* OUCH! OK, I take it back, _I do not dedicate this to any other friends who are not really friends. _(lol)

**Warning: **I'm crazy! That is all…

**Chapter 1: More than a Geek**

"I think we should do a charm that would transfigure them all into monkeys as soon as they take a bite of the banana cake that the house-elves like to feed us so much…" Sirius Black suggested. The four marauders were in the common room, plotting a new prank to play on the Slytherins. As usual.

"Cool, but what if some of them don't like bananas? I don't blame them if they don't, I know that the house-elves could cook up a storm but when it comes to anything related to the banana, they're a different story," James said, shuddering slightly. He hated bananas.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Just because you hate them doesn't mean the whole of Slytherin house does too, Prongs," he said impatiently. "They'll eat anything and everything they can get their hands on, I'll grant you that."

Remus smirked. Sirius was always on the defensive when somebody opposed his brilliant (or so he claimed) plans. "It seems like a good idea, but what if they eat it at different times? Then the others will know not to eat them and some of them might even hex us since they know they're not going to turn into chimpanzees anytime soon," he said matter-of-factly.

Peter nodded vigorously. He didn't really do anything during their daily plotting, just nodding and agreeing and laughing whenever the other marauders said something funny. Actually, he really wasn't much use at all, but he stuck with them because of Sirius and James and along the ride had gained some of their social power as well.

For five whole minutes, James and Sirius argued about food and enchantments when Lily Evans and her two best friends, Celeste and Chase, arrived.

"Hey guys, what's up?" she asked them, looking at the still arguing James and Sirius and clearly finding out what was up.

Remus sighed. "The usual. They're fighting about the advantages and disadvantages of banana cakes," he said with a straight face.

Lily laughed and sat on one of the armchairs by the fire. 

"I never knew that the merits and demerits of banana cakes held such a crucial role in practical jokes," Chase commented, sarcastic as always. James and Sirius instantly stopped fighting at once.

Celeste flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder. "Really, Chase, you don't know anything at all when it comes to organizing. If you want the operations to go smoothly then every single detail must be all planned out—"

"And I thought you disagreed with the way we do our pranks, Miss I'm-a-Little-Angel," Chase interjected in a bored voice. "You know James, you should just put a charm on the Slytherin table so they all get the urge to eat banana cakes at the same time. Allergic or not, enchantments always win over their better judgments."

James' eyes lit up. "Great! I didn't think of that! Hey Pete, we better go to the library tomorrow, we've got a lot of research to do…"

"Why me?" Peter whined.

"Because," Sirius said, in a peeved sort of way, "You hardly do anything in our pranks, and since you _are_ literate, it's your job to read up stuff that we need! Okay then, once we get all the spells to perform the trick, we have to split them up to the different people who are best at them…James, I think you better do the spell that will turn them into monkeys, Rem, you put the Stopper Spell on the chairs, and Chase, you'll do the charm that you said a while ago, since it was your idea…"

Lily tuned out as Sirius drilled all the details into them, Remus writing down what he said furiously on a piece of parchment. She noted that a lot of girls were staring at the marauders. They were, after all, the most popular boys in the school. Almost the same number of boys was also gazing intently at Chase, Celeste and Lily.  For some reason, a flashback occurred in her head, weeks of her first year in Hogwarts. She certainly wasn't popular back then, not at all. In fact, it was quite the opposite…

~~~MeMoRy SeQuEnCe~~~

Ten-year-old Lily Evans came home from school one day, lugging her huge backpack behind her. That day was one of the worst she had yet. She thought that getting perfect scores and acing all her classes would have done her some good, but all her life it had backfired on her. She was always being called a geek, a dork, a nerd, a dweeb…or any other name the other kids could think of related to a person who was really smart, and in their standards "uncool." It just wasn't fair.

On top of that, her older sister Petunia and her friends had once again mocked her to her face for the fifth time that day. Petunia was popular in their school, mainly because she was a trendsetter and one of the biggest gossipmongers Lily had ever seen. It didn't matter to Petunia that she was hurting her own sister, no. All that mattered to her was being on top of her image and having the power to squish a person's reputation by just saying a few harsh words. And enjoying doing it. 

These were Lily's bitter thoughts. She banged the door hard as she came into the house. Thankfully, the house was deserted. A note on the kitchen table read: _Went to buy groceries. Be back at 5. Love, Mum and Dad. _

She sighed and stomped her way to her room. There was no need to finish homework; she had done all of it at lunch break. After all, what else was a geek supposed to _but _do assignments in school? Nobody would bother playing with her anyway. It was a good thing that the school year was almost over. She couldn't wait for summer, where she could get out of the house and away from Petunia and her stuck-up friends…and speaking of which…

The front door of the house banged open and a chorus of high-pitched female laughter followed. Lily quickly shut her bedroom door closed and locked it. No doubt she would be attacked by the Snob Squad if she didn't hide soon enough. She sat on the edge of her bed and tried to drown her sister's annoyingly gossip-induced voice from her hearing range. 

Barely a second later, a large barn owl swooped into her window. She ducked, momentarily panicked at the thought of a mad owl flying around in broad daylight and choosing an innocent ten-year-old as its first victim of attack—

Instead, the owl sat, as still as stone, on her bed, an envelope tied to its right leg. Slowly, Lily straightened up and looked at the owl. She took the envelope from it and before she could open the message, the bird had flown back out. 

She slit open the slightly yellow envelope and unfolded two pieces of paper on it. She read the contents, hardly believing her eyes. _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore….Order of Merlin, first class…equipment needed: 1 pewter cauldron, 5 sets of black robes, 1 black pointed hat, 1 wand…_

She didn't know how long she sat there, reading and rereading the letter. She briefly considered somebody pulling a practical joke on her…but it was too tricky…it _had _to be true…

Lily heard a car pull into their driveway and catapulted out of her bed. Her parents were very surprised to see their second daughter smiling so happily; usually Lily's expression was one of impassiveness to cover up the hurt she felt from school. They too were shocked that she was a witch, and Petunia, who had seen off the last of her friends five minutes ago and had listened in to the whole thing, was paralyzed with fear.

"Don't touch me, WITCH!" Petunia screamed when Lily made to hug her.

_"Petunia Evans! _Do _not _speak to your sister that way!" their mother said angrily.

"You should be proud, my dear," Mr. Evans added. "Honestly, a witch in our family, this is a great honor indeed…"

Petunia looked at them as though they were demented. "Mum, Dad, she's a _witch! _Don't you know what this means? She's a freak, she's going to turn us into cockroaches once we get her angry or something—"

"I would never do that!" Lily protested, horrified at the thought.

"Petunia! For the last time—"

"SHE'S A FREAK!!!" 

"You're _grounded_!"

There was silence. Lily's grin widened, Mrs. Evans looked enraged beyond words, Mr. Evans' face was a mixture of pride for Lily and anger at Petunia, and Petunia was as white as one of the varieties of the ornamental plant she was named after. Without saying another word, she stalked up the staircase and slammed her bedroom door shut. 

Mrs. Evans sighed. "I'm sorry that your sister isn't taking the news very well, dear…but we're really very proud of you, that's what matters."

"Absolutely," Mr. Evans agreed. "There's only a week left of school, we'll buy your things immediately after that so that you can get started on the feel of the magical world…"

And that was how Lily Evans found out that she had more to her than brains and the permanent title of "class geek."

*****     

The summer passed quickly enough and before she knew it, she was pushing a trolley around in Platform Nine and Three Quarters. She had had a little help from a kind old witch that was outside the barrier, and now she was all alone, since her parents were what the wizarding world called "Muggles" and therefore couldn't enter the barrier because they didn't have magic in their veins. 

Sighing, she found a compartment near the back of the train and waited for it to move. A minute later the train departed the platform. 

She was just settling in when the door slid open and a boy with light brown hair and a pale complexion walked in. 

"Sorry, but there're no more empty compartments in the train—is this seat taken?" the boy asked, pointing at the seat opposite Lily.

Lily shook her head. Sighing with obvious relief, the boy sat down and positioned his trunk at a corner of the car.

"Thanks. The name's Remus Lupin, by the way. You?"

"Lily Evans," Lily almost whispered. She wasn't used to people being this friendly to her before. Petunia had made sure she didn't have any friends.

"Nice to meet you Lily. Are you a first year too?" Remus asked. His voice was pleasant enough, but Lily had a feeling that he looked strangely tired, as if he had just been sick a few days before.

"Yes," Lily answered. "And I didn't know I was a witch until only two months ago."

"That's fine," Remus said, waving his hand dismissively. "We're all on the same level anyway. Even pure-blood witches and wizards our age don't know much yet about how to do real magic."

The two of them chatted all the way to the school. Nobody came to interrupt them in their compartment. Remus filled Lily in on stuff about the wizarding world, while Lily told him what it was like in the Muggle world and how they lived without any magic at all. They reached the school at nightfall and were led there through boats crossing a large lake.

"Wow…_this _is the school?" Lily breathed, looking up in awe at the magnificent castle whose exact size was immeasurable. 

A young witch, maybe only about twenty-four, met them at the entrance. She looked quite stern and had square glasses perched on her nose. "Move along now, it is time for the Sorting."

After a brief introduction of the four houses and the point system, the witch, who introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, led them in a straight line to a room so large that more than five hundred people would have fit comfortably inside it. 

"This is the Great Hall," McGonagall said, "Where you shall have your daily meals and the banquets that we hold on special occasions, such as this one. Before you could eat, however, you must be Sorted into your respective houses.

A stool and a worn wizard's hat stood in the center of the Hall. It broke into a song about the four houses before the real Sorting commenced. 

The list went through the "A's" first since they were being Sorted by alphabetical order. Lily watched all the students being sorted first with interest. 

When they reached the "B's," she particularly admired a boy who strode confidently to the front when his name was called. "Black, Sirius," McGonagall had called him, and Lily noted that quite a number of girls goggled and swooned. Even the older years.

And the line shortened as "Bones," "Boot," and a bunch of other people were sorted. Finally, the "E's…"

First was a girl named "Eamon, Maxine." (ring ring ring ^_^ ) "Edenberry," "Elliot," and finally, "Evans, Lily." Lily strode nervously forward, all eyes in the Hall on her. 

The hat went straight over her eyes. _"Hmmmmm. Lily Evans. You are clever indeed…shall I put you in Ravenclaw?"_

Lily bit her lip. If it put her in Ravenclaw, then she would really be known as a geek. Remus told her that Ravenclaws weren't really called nerds because they were naturally bright, but Lily knew that hers was a different story. It was always that way. She never wanted to go through that again.

_No, _Lily thought desperately. _Don't put me in Ravenclaw…_

_"Not in Ravenclaw? Well then…"  _the hat said-thought. _"What is this? I sense fear and anxiety in you, young Lily…"_

_Just don't put me in Ravenclaw…That's all I want… _Lily thought.

_"You might need to improve your bravery a little more…then I guess I'd better make you _GRYFFINDOR!" The hat shouted the last word out loud and one of the tables broke into applause as she ambled to their table. 

She watched the remaining students to be sorted. Her mind drifted to the food that McGonagall had promised would be served after the sorting and she caught only a few names being called. She was glad that Remus was sorted into Gryffindor too; he was the only friend she had so far. At least she thought he was her friend.

"McKinnon," "Nott," "Potter," "Prewett," "Quirrell," "Rosier." Her stomach started to growl as they reached the "S's." "Schoharie, Celeste" was obviously a rich girl, whose face was already enhanced with the right amount and color of makeup and had waist-long hair that was silky smooth. Her ears glittered with bright blue sapphires and she wore a matching pendant and ring. Lily's first impression of her was a snob. 

I hope she's not going to be placed in— 

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat announced, and Lily groaned inwardly as Celeste sashayed to their table. Right after her in line was a greasy-haired, large-nosed boy named "Snape, Severus." He was placed in Slytherin.

"Tarlise, Chase," was third to the last, and Lily was shocked to see as a girl who looked exactly like Celeste Schoharie, except for the shorter shoulder-length hair and makeup-free face, step forward and sit on the stool. She also was placed in Gryffindor, and after the last two had been sorted and the Headmaster had made a short speech, food magically appeared on their plates. Lily took a while to stare at the mouthwatering food that had appeared, apparently, out of thin air.

As she scooped roast potatoes onto her plate, she heard voices across from her. Celeste and Chase were sitting side by side, and now Lily was sure that they were twins. But how come their last names were different?

"Jeez, Celeste, you didn't have to wear a whole set of jewelry to impress people on the first day. Everyone's going to think you're a big snob," Chase said to her maybe-twin. _Too true, _Lily thought silently.

Celeste looked annoyed. "That's your opinion. But we'll see who'll be laughing once we find out who'll be more well-known in a couple of weeks."

"A race to popularity. How exciting," Chase noted dryly, and a few people near them, including Lily, laughed. 

Farther down the table, Sirius Black was entertaining a bunch of girls who were swarming around him. He seemed to be rather amused with the attention. "Yes, Kylie, scoop up some more buttered corn onto my plate, you, Rachel, get me a roast chicken drumstick…"

The boy beside him, James Potter, had a hefty amount of admirers surrounding him too, but he seemed to want them to back away. "No thanks, I can feed myself just fine, you don't need to lead that spoon into my mouth. Why don't you all go to Sirius? He's more good-looking—really…"

Sirius flashed him a grin. "And well you know it Jamie boy!" he said as the girls continued to act like his personal servants. 

Lily wondered for a second what it felt like to be that popular…all her life she was always on the bottom of the social food chain. She was treated like an outcast in her old school and since she was in a new one, she had a wild idea that maybe she could change…

"You holding up alright, Lily?" Remus said to her left. There was a lot of food on his plate, but it was nothing compared to the mountainous pile that was on Sirius Black's. A person opposite him wouldn't have been able to see his face through all the food.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lily said quietly. After the feast, Dumbledore directed the prefects to lead them to their dormitories and the Gryffindor first year passed through intersecting passages, doors hidden behind tapestries and countless staircases. By the time they reached a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress, where they had stopped, Lily felt like all the weight she had put on after eating a whole lot in the feast was completely diminished. 

The prefect said the password ("Gobbledygook") and the portrait swung forward, revealing a huge hole that everybody climbed into. The boys climbed a staircase to the left of the room and the girls were ordered to climb up the one at the right. When Lily got to their dorm, she noticed that her trunk was already at the foot of one of the beds. The other four girls, Chase, Celeste, Kylie and Sylvia went in too, Chase and Celeste arguing (at least Celeste was, Chase looked merely amused with a smirk on her face) and Kylie and Sylvia chattering loudly about the latest makeup products. The four of them fell silent as they saw Lily.

"Hello," Celeste said pleasantly, making Lily have second thoughts about the first impression she judged Celeste with. 

"Yo," Chase greeted, raising her chin slightly in Lily's direction. "You're Lily Evans, right? It's nice to meet you." She held out her hand.

Lily took it, looking disbelieving. Here was a girl who was a lot like her sister's friends (except for the fact that she was tons friendlier), 

shaking hands with her! It was so surreal.

"You too," Lily stammered. They changed into their nightgowns, Chase listening to her intently as she explained how the school system worked in the Muggle world. As soon as all five girls closed the hangings all around their beds and slowly drifted to sleep, Lily had a hopeful thought in her head. 

Maybe she could change after all.

**AN – **See that button underneath the black line below this note? The one on the right of the Submit Review and dropdown button marked Go? Well, CLICK ON IT! I DEMAND YOU TO!!! Why should you, you say? Because…because…uh…BECAUSE I'VE GOT A KEYBOARD AND I'M NOT AFRAID TO USE IT! So there… -_-; Oops…I mean, because if you do, you would be making a seriously-in-need-of-a-psychologist lunatic happy… and that is a major accomplishment. So just click on the damned Go button already and type a review! I don't care if you write "It sucks," or "Get a life, Dimantrien" as long as it's a review! And yes, I am crazy, in case you didn't know that already…


	2. A Waking Nightmare

**Atop the Popularity Scale**

**By Dimantrien**

**AN – **Thanks to those who reviewed and…to the anonymous person who didn't write a name on his/her review…it's still not finished…(says to self, "Well duh it isn't, Dimantrien…"-_-) Forgive my insanity. That is all. 

**Chapter 2: A Waking Nightmare**

**~~~**MeMoRy SeQuEnCe (and will probably be until the end of this story)~~~

The first day of classes, Lily knew, was always the worst. It was proven when she woke up super-early because of a damned bloody git of a poltergeist that flew into their dormitory and pelted her with small balls of parchment dipped in a liquid substance that stinked horribly.  Then she was forced to take an extra-long shower at the break of a freezing-weather dawn to get rid of the smell, left only with two more hours of sleep (and awarded with a brand new cold to boot). As if that wasn't enough, she slept late and was drenched by a bucket of ice-cold water by Chase Tarlise, which worsened her cold. Chase must have apologized ten times to Lily, saying that she wouldn't wake up any other way, and Lily, grumpy though she was at the state of being woken up that way, couldn't help but think that being thrown with water in the middle of bed was certainly a better option than being late for her first ever class. But that didn't stop her from feeling cantankerous. 

First class was Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall gave her a lecture on punctuality and promptness in front of the whole class that humiliated her to no end. When she was sent to her seat, she dropped down on it feeling worse than ever, and it collapsed. More laughter rang through the classroom as—her face burning with embarrassment—she picked herself up. 

"Off to a bad start, Miss Evans?" Sirius Black said in a fake-Professor McGonagall tone, sniggering.

James Potter, who appeared to have developed a friendship with him overnight, grinned amusedly too. "Gee, I wonder how much you weigh, Evans. You must be really heavy for that chair to collapse so fast," he tried to say with a straight face but failing miserably.

Lily gave them her best death glare, which, as luck would have it, only made them laugh more. Celeste Schoharie was throwing her a patronizing look. Chase Tarlise rolled her eyes at James and Sirius and went back to the sketch she was drawing. 

"This is not a laughing matter, students!" Professor McGonagall called to the class, but she couldn't suppress a chuckle as she did so. "Now, will whoever brilliant student who dared play a trick on Miss Evans please admit it right now."

James raised his hand and waved it in the air. "I did it, Professor!" he shouted to the class. Not a trace of guilt or conviction was in his voice. 

"And I bet you thought it was highly amusing, didn't you," Lily told him scathingly.

James gave her a blank look, just for the act. "Why, Lily dear, I thought you were smarter than that. Of course I didn't do that purely out of spite, everything has a reason you know."

"And what reason do you have for ruining my day on the first day of school?!" Lily said angrily.

"Why, for entertainment, what else?" James answered matter-of-factly in a smug tone. Lily shook with rage and started to retort when McGonagall stepped in.

"That is enough, Potter. You'll get a detention for your credit. Miss Evans, you may sit down."

"Sit down where?" 

"On this chair." Professor McGonagall conjured one from thin air, and Lily willingly sat on it. 

That left Lily with unvented fury until the end of the class. There was one thing in her mind that very moment.

She hated James Potter. And she always would. She would swear it until the day she would stand at his grave, laughing. She would show him—and everybody else—that there was more to Lily Evans than a geeky, bookworm boring personality. 

***** 

"Are you OK, Lily?" Chase asked in concern. They were currently sitting in their next class, which happened to be Herbology with the Ravenclaws.

"Fine," Lily said sourly, staring daggers at James Potter, who smirked back. It annoyed her to no end.

"Ookay," Chase answered sarcastically. "Anyway, as I was saying since you were too busy concentrating on attempting to kill James Potter with those glares you keep throwing at him, Sprout just wants us to plant these tiny little boring seed things that are shaped like cubes."

"What? Oh, OK," Lily replied distractedly. 

"Partners, everyone!" Professor Sprout called out. "I'll call them out. Boot, you go with Miss Raine. Pettigrew and Moon. Miss Schoharie and Kimball…"

"Next, Miss Evans and…let's see…" Please pair me with Chase, please oh please don't pair me with— 

"Potter."

"NO!" Lily instantly said loudly.

Professor Sprout looked startled. "Well. Miss Evans, I do believe that I am the teacher in this class and not you. You don't have to worry about Potter, he's not going to eat you or anything…" she chuckled at her own joke as she continued calling the names.

_It's a better option than working with him, _she thought darkly, starting to walk toward James in a sulky manner.

"We meet again, Lovely Lily!" James said brightly. There was a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"Oh, shut the bloody hell up, Potter," Lily mumbled, grabbing a handful of seeds and throwing them into a pot. She reached for a sprinkler and was just about to water the seeds when—

"Uh, Lily, I don't think you should do that…" James said uncertainly.

"What? Is this another one of your jokes? Do you take me for some fool, Potter? I'm not thick enough to believe anything that you say," she shot back at him, tilting the sprinkler and letting water fall onto the plants. Nothing happened.

"See?" she said triumphantly, turning away from the plant. But James was already ten paces away, over at Remus' and Sirius' table, whispering something to them. "I told you s—"

Suddenly a jet of water hit her on the back, sending her flying forward and falling to the ground. Spitting out soil, she tried to stand up, only to be hit by another gush of liquid. She stood up quickly before another water attack could hit her. To her horror, half the class was already laughing and pointing at her while the other half was throwing her pitiful and sympathetic looks. Sirius and James were laughing the hardest. 

"Don't say I didn't warn you!" James gasped between sniggers.

She felt the pressure of water on her back again and tripped. She held out her hands to break the fall, and she felt pain on her palms. She had thrown herself right into a thorny bush of some kind.

There was a voice behind her. _"Impervius!" _She recognized it as Chase's, and when she looked back, the water continued to attack her but she seemed to be repelling it. She was still wet, but at least there wasn't any more damage. 

"C'mon, Lily, I'll take you to the hospital wing," she muttered. Lily's eyes suddenly stung as the sharp pain in her bleeding palms came back. They were starting to feel a little numb, lessening the pain. Great. Just what she needed. A thorny plant that had numbing poison. 

She felt the tears threatening to fall as the class continued to laugh. Two public spectacles in one day—how bad were things going to get? She saw Chase glower at James, who immediately stopped laughing. 

What would she do without Chase? She was always there for her when everybody else wasn't, and she wasn't even her friend—yet. Why would such a popular and confident girl like her waste her time on a geek like Lily?

Chase and Lily entered the hospital wing. While Madame Pomfrey mended her wounds, Chase excused herself and went back to Greenhouse 1. 

*****   

When she got back out of the hospital wing, it was already lunchtime. She dreaded going into the Great Hall, knowing that word would have probably spread like wildfire about her "acts." She thought of skipping lunch and just going back to Gryffindor Tower.

"Lily!" 

Lily rammed her eyes shut. _Oh no, not him… _

"Hey Lily! Lily Evans!" 

Lily didn't turn around and started heading for the Hall. "Just leave me alone…" she muttered, almost to herself.

She felt something heavy on her shoulder and looked up. It was Sirius Black. 

"Oh, it's just you," she said, trying to cover up her relief with a detached expression.

Sirius looked slightly surprised. "'Course it's me—why? Were you expecting someone else?" he asked, flashing her a sly grin.

Lily turned beet red. "N-no. Why were you calling me anyway?"

"Oh yeah, that. Celeste told me that Chase told her from Remus whose message was passed on from Peter that you go to the Gryffindor Tower ASAP, and since all the lazy people I just mentioned are currently too busy pigging out in the Great Hall, they told me to be the one to tell you, as told to me by Celeste who was doing a favor for Chase who got the message from Remus who heard it from Peter—"

"Sirius!" Lily said exasperatedly.

"What?" said Sirius innocently.

"From which person did the message actually come from?"

"Well, I don't really know, since Celeste told me that Chase said that Rem—"

"Sirius!!!"

"What?!" Sirius said, annoyed.

"Shut up!"

"Oh. Fine. Just go to Gryffindor Tower, OK? All this explanations about message-passing made me really hungry. Ciao!" Sirius bounced back into the Great Hall.

Lily sighed. She certainly didn't know who Peter whatzisname was, but he must be a Gryffindor then. But why did he, whoever he was, pick lunchtime to be the time for this impromptu rendezvous? Didn't he have the same way of thinking as all eleven-year-old boys, where meals were practically the most essential parts of their life? 

When she got back to the common room, it was deserted. She rolled her eyes and had half a mind to go back to the Hall, when she heard a set of footsteps thundering down a staircase.

"There you are! I've told Peter to look for you! I was wondering if he got stuck in the spiral fourth floor staircase again, he always gets himself lost…"

Lily turned around and realized that it was James Potter who was talking behind her. She gave him the most withering glare she could muster and started to stalk back out of the portrait hole.

"Wait! I have to talk to you!" he cried, running after her.

"Leave me alone! Why don't you just run off and ruin somebody else's day? Haven't you done enough already?!" she yelled.

"Come on, Lily…I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

Lily stopped short. She hadn't expected _that. _

"See, it's just my and Sirius' nature to play pranks on people. But I'm really sorry that we got off on the wrong foot, and I admit that it's my fault. I promise never to do it again, since I know that it really upsets you badly. I just thought that you would find them funny."

"Well, maybe you should think first and consider a person's feelings before pulling a prank at them," she retorted. 

"If I did that, then none of the Slytherins would have a dose of their deserved medicine," James protested.

Lily's mouth curved into a small smile. "And what medicine is that?"

"Well, lots! Like, pastel-colored hair, toads invading their common room, rigging their brooms during flying class…"

Lily laughed. "OK, I forgive you."

James extended his hand. "Good! Friends?"

Lily took the hand and started to shake it. Hers turned green, and the nails became dark blue. "JAMES POTTER!!!"

James darted off with Lily chasing after him. "Sorry, sorry, couldn't help it!" he shouted. 

He went around a corner and Lily followed, but when she got there he disappeared. There were no sounds of footsteps on the stone floor. Where did he go?

Sighing, Lily took out her wand and fixed her hand using a spell that she read from her Charms book the other day. "Boys," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

AN – Six words: JUST CLICK THE DAMNED GO BUTTON!!! 


	3. Anything can Come True

Atop the Popularity Scale 

**By Dimantrien**

**AN – **Now there's just one thing that bothers me. Why is it that there are people who have me in their favorite author's list (about three-fourths of them, and even with that it's not a lot ^_-) but have never ever reviewed??? Sure, it's not really a big deal, but it's just weird that there are people I don't know adding me in their list but not giving me any reason why they did…anyway, if anybody who is reading this is one of those mentioned above, I'd really appreciate a review, it's sad…but I am a desperate lunatic… 

Chapter 3: Anything can Come True 

~~~YoU gEt ThE pOiNt?~~~

Everybody was laughing. They were all staring at her, some whispering, some pointing and jeering. A pain filled her chest and she started to run away, the hallway blurring as her eyes filled with tears. She glimpsed for a few precious seconds the other girl—the one with blonde hair and dressed in trendy clothes—who was also joining in taunting her. She tripped and fell, and the noise of cruel amusement washed over her, drowning her, and she couldn't breathe…

"NO!!!" Lily sat up straight in her bed, her breath coming out in short gasps. She was clutching her bed sheets, her palms sweaty. She reached for the mirror on her bedside table and peered into it. Her face looked horrible, ghost-pale and tear-streaked. Starting to get up, she fell back onto her bed again when the person on the bed next to her stirred and yawned. Lily lay perfectly still.

"Lily?" Chase's voice called. "Are you OK?"

Lily remained silent. There was a pause, and she heard Chase lie back down on her bed and settle back to sleep. Barely a moment later the sound of the even breathing of someone fast asleep reached her ears. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

She had had that dream occasionally for as long as she could remember. It was most clear after a day of being taunted by somebody or other at her Muggle school, or when Petunia made a particularly nasty remark to her at the dinner table. Now, after a few days in Hogwarts where she already felt like she fit in, it was all coming back to her.

Why, though? She didn't have any problems with her classmates anymore, after James Potter had called off his prank attacks on her. For a while, too, James and his friends were acting friendlier towards her, and they were some of the most (if not the most) popular students in the school, even after only several days. Chase Tarlise, another instant-fame student (she was considered by many to be one of the coolest first years in Hogwarts), acted very much like a true friend to Lily. She had never had a true friend before, and she knew that it was Petunia who devoted all her life in making sure that Lily was as miserable as possible.

Lily had always envied people who could climb to the top of the social ladder in a matter of days. She had met a fair few of them, most of which were friends of Petunia's, and she greatly disliked their attitude. She felt, for quite a while, that everyone here was the same, but they weren't. On the contrary, they were the nicest people she had met in a long, long time.

She stood up and started to prepare for school. It would be useless to go back to sleep; besides, it was only an hour more before her usual waking time anyway. She vividly remembered waking up too early and going back to sleep—only to be drenched in water by Chase to force her to wake up when she slept too long after that. 

As soon as she was dressed, she grabbed her morning-class books on top of her trunk and went down to breakfast. Only a few people were in the Great Hall, and none of them were Gryffindors. Lily felt a bit awkward, sitting in the large Gryffindor table all alone. Thankfully, no Slytherin was a morning person, and their table was mercifully deserted. 

More and more people started to enter the Hall after that; first were a bunch of Ravenclaw fifth year girls who were rather vain (complete with heavy makeup and an attitude to fill the Hall to overflowing). Some Hufflepuffs entered shortly after, comforting a girl whose nose had apparently been turned to one of a large rat's; it was shiny and black and as some of her friends tried to make it back to normal, their spells mixed and instead she sprouted whiskers on her cheeks. Something told Lily that she knew who had transfigured her nose in the first place…

As usual, precise Lily had guessed right. Sirius, James, Remus and a boy she knew by face but had never talked to went into the Hall, laughing. The Hufflepuff group, only a few paces away from them, was glaring. 

"Pass the bagels, Lily," Sirius said, still in a highly amused mood as he slid into the seat next to her.

"And a good morning to you too, Sirius," Lily said in return, getting a bagel from the basket and dropping it on Sirius' plate.

"Sorry," said Sirius through a mouthful of bagel. "You sure are early today." He swallowed and grabbed the whole plate of bagels himself, tipping them all onto his plate.

"Sirius, you've got an appetite the size of Jupiter," Remus remarked lightly as he, James and the other boy sat down themselves. "'Morning, Lily."

"Hey, Remus," Lily answered pleasantly. 

James pretended to look hurt. "Don't I get a greeting too?" he said in a mock-sensitive voice.

"Fine then, good morning, James," Lily intoned, patting his hand. As soon as she did, it flashed from pink to purple. Remus, Sirius and the still unidentified boy howled with laughter.

"Argh! What the hell did you do that for?!" James yelled furiously, trying to do the countercurse, but to no aavail, since Lily had added a tricky charm on it that would make it wear off only after three hours.

"For payback," she answered sweetly, and, slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she dashed out of the Hall, before James could think up a curse to throw in retaliation.

*****  

"Man, I never thought I'd see the day when the brilliant James Potter would be hoodwinked by a girl," Sirius sniggered as they made their way to the Charms classroom. 

James glared at him. After ten bagels, four croissants, fifteen slices of buttered toast, and three glasses of orange juice, he still hadn't forgotten about Lily's trick. Well, it must be hard not to, since James' right hand was still flashing pink and purple in a very noticeable manner. But Sirius didn't have to rub it in, though.

"And a Muggle-born one, at that," Remus added.

"Will you just quit it, you guys?" James mumbled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his robes. They entered the classroom, where everyone else was assembled. His eyes darted at once to Lily. She was easy to spot since she was the only redhead in the room, and at the moment she was talking animatedly to Chase Tarlise, who appeared quite amused. 

Sirius sat down on the desk to Lily's left. "Hello, Lil! You seem to have punctured Sunshine Boy's god spirits today, and as your classmate I should warn you that a joke like yours will not get off easy…" There was a devilish smile on his face, as if he was planning the perfect prank to get back at Lily.

"Lil?" Lily said blankly. "Where'd you get that nickname?"

Sirius shrugged. "Why, you have a problem with it?"

"No," Lily said slowly, and Professor Flitwick came in. Sirius Black, call her by a nickname? A friendly nickname of course, and if that was the case then he must most certainly consider her a friend…

Professor Flitwick launched in on an introduction of Spinning Spells. He demonstrated it with a pencil on his desk, and after that he told the students to practice it as he walked around to observe how they performed.

Lily had her Charms book spinning in no time, but some of the other Gryffindors apparently thought that this was very difficult. Chase had her Hogwarts, a History spinning in a vertical position, but it whirled faster and faster until it ricocheted to her left, hitting Celeste's forehead. As Lily, slightly bored, heard Celeste screaming at her twin about very prominent swollen lumps, she looked to her far right, where James had a variety of objects already spinning on his desk. There was a test-tube-like vial with green liquid in it, an inkbottle, a chocolate bar, and a quill. 

Sirius Black was trying to convince Flitwick that he had performed a Spinning Spell on his Sneakoscope. Flitwick wasn't looking too happy with him. Of course, it was probable that the only reason that the Sneakoscope was spinning was because Sirius was lying through his teeth. It wasn't hard to figure out. 

Their other classmates weren't faring so well either. Peter Pettigrew (Lily now knew the name of the boy who was with Sirius, James and Remus) attempted the charm, but only ending up sending a sort of zap on the book he was practicing on, causing it to fling itself full in his face in reprisal. Martin Kimball borrowed Sylvia's wand to practice on, which was a dumb thing to do, since spinning it would cause sparks to come out of it, hitting everyone within a five-feet range and causing them to rotate while standing on the spot.  This caused quite a few to go out and get some Anti-Dizziness Draughts, barfing all the way to the hospital wing. 

Lily would have felt sorry for Professor Flitwick—who looked very harassed by the end of the period—if he hadn't announced in a peevish manner that they had to do a two-foot essay on Spinning Spells and their counter charm. She brightened, however, when Flitwick assured her that she and James would not be doing any homework since they had perfected the charm so easily. He gave them ten House points each before they were dismissed.

Sirius was whining to them as they left the classroom. "It's not fair, just because you both have brains the size of Jupiter doesn't mean that you get off homework—" 

"Sirius, if you didn't want homework, then you should've done the charm instead of arguing with Flitwick about the Sneakoscope just so you could get detention," James patiently noted to him.

"Why? Does he like having detention?" Lily asked incredulously.

"'Course he does. I heard that students who have detention sometimes go to the Forbidden Forest," Remus informed.

"But that's really dangerous! There are werewolves and other kinds of monsters in there, I've heard!" Lily said alarmingly. 

"Yeah…" James and Sirius had glazed looks on their faces, as if no one could hope for anything more than to be punished with detention and assigned to go and do something perilous inside the Forbidden Forest. 

"Aren't you ever scared of being expelled?" Lily continued. 

"Nope," three voices answered her firmly.

"Dumbledore wouldn't expel us," James explained a bewildered Lily, "he's really close with some of our parents, mind, so all we'd get is about three weeks' worth of yelling about discipline when we get back home for the holidays." His friends laughed.

"Besides," Sirius jumped in, "the only way that we'd get seriously in trouble is if we sneak out at night or something, but so far we've only just done pranks and stuff, so there's no need to feel threatened yet."

Lily still looked doubtful. How could they stand here and talk so casually about breaking rules? All her life she had been devoted to school rules and regulations, because she knew that that was what was right…and she remembered too vividly her old headmistress' intimidating speech in the beginning of each year that whoever broke even the smallest school rule would pay dearly… Ever since then she had been afraid to do anything wrong, out of fear of the fact that if she did, dreadful things would happen to her…

"Hey Lily! Lil! Earth to Lily Evans…" Sirius waved his hand in front of her face, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, what did you say?" She blinked, realizing that she had totally spaced out while they were talking. She wondered if Sirius was mildly irritated by her lack of attention.

Instead, Sirius just grinned. "Ah, lost in your thoughts, are you? What were you thinking about? Or maybe, just maybe, who?" he asked in an I'm-going-to-get-a-kick-out-of-teasing-you tone. 

Lily felt the blood instantly rise in her cheeks. "W-what? I wasn't thinking of anybody!" she said defensively. "I was just wondering why you could be so relaxed about rules—"

The mischievous grin in Sirius' face widened. "Aw, c'mon, Lil, don't tell me you haven't ever broken a rule before, even just once…" Lily shook her head. Sirius' jaw dropped.

"Never?" James prodded. This time he was the one who looked incredulous. "No, really, as in, not a single time in your whole life???"

Lily almost laughed out loud. They were blowing this break-the-rules thing way out of proportion, acting like it was a miracle—no, a tragedy if anyone they knew hadn't ever broken a rule. 

"You know what this means, don't you, boys?" James asked his two friends.

"Lily Evans is a straight-laced, rule-devoted goody-two-shoes!!!" Sirius answered energetically. Remus, at his side, chuckled.

"I am not," Lily said hotly, watching Sirius singing the words annoyingly while skipping beside her as they walked.

"Lily is a goody-two-shoes, violators make her nauseous, her clothes are always clean and neat, for her, strict rules are all a treat," Sirius singsonged, making up lyrics as they moved along.

"Shut up, Sirius," Lily shouted at him, for he was singing at the top of his lungs. People were turning to stare. James was sniggering; Remus was trying to suppress a laugh but wasn't doing it very well.

And Sirius didn't shut up. "The most straight-laced girl you'd ever meet, she'd probably lick her teachers' feet, if it was written in the book, all she'd need was one quick look…" (sorry, but I suck at limericks, or any other form of poetry for that matter…^_^;) 

Remus had calmed down long enough to say, "Sirius, stop it already, Lily's not like that at all…" The laughter died in James' throat when he saw Lily, whose eyes were starting to get watery, her whole body trembling with embarrassment.

"To defy the rules she wouldn't dare, that's what makes all the people stare, disbelieved, and say, 'that gal's a geek!', she's a living, breathing, rule-worshipping freak!" 

Lily burst into tears and fled down the corridor, away from the whispering on-lookers, away from Sirius' admirers who were giggling at his cruel words, away from the people who thought that her feelings were just a toy they could mess with and discard without a second thought. The latter, she was sure, consisted of Hogwarts' entire student body. 

This is just a nightmare, she told herself, a nightmare just like all the others, and any minute now I'm going to wake up…

She tripped on a turtle shell that was, queerly, in the middle of the hallway, and she fell to the floor with a dull thud. The pain was real, and there was no denying that she was awake.

But this was a nightmare. Only, apart from the others, this was the waking kind. 

*****  

**AN – **Awwwww…poor Lily *sniff* Well, that's why it's called drama, ain't it? Though I'm not very good at it coz I am not a sap…then again, I am a hypocrite so sometimes I am…er, I think I'm having one of my just-a-little-more-crazy-than-usual moments… Anywayz ciao! I've got exams coming up for the third time this schoolyear…=(  Better go and study *gags at the thought* Well, pity me…bye peoplez!

Oh yeah…and thanks to Jemi Fal and animegirl for reviewing! I just hope they haven't forgotten about this fic already…-_-


	4. Friends?

Atop the Popularity Scale 

**By Dimantrien**

**Chapter 4: Friends?**

The Astronomy Tower was the perfect place for staring at the skies all night, and was usually left alone by students who dreaded memorizing differences in the light-year distances between planets, which consisted of pretty much the whole of the student body. 

It was for this reason that all couples in Hogwarts have at one point used it as a make-out place, especially when it was a full moon. At one such day, however, this wasn't the case.

Lily was huddled in a corner of the tower. For the past hour, she had calmed down long enough to stop crying. The wind that flew into the open-windowed tower seemed like it was sharing her sorrow; it was whistling in a depressing sort of way and droplets of the slight drizzle outside were blown into the room. 

She stood up and looked out at the setting sun. She had missed a Transfiguration class, and she knew that she would get more than a reprimand for it from McGonagall tomorrow. But she didn't care. Her only concern was how Sirius and his other friends could possibly twist even _that_ against her and her already ruined image. 

She checked her watch and stared at the entrance to the room. In less than an hour she should be going to the Great Hall now, but she wasn't in the mood to have another round of people laughing to her face tonight. Slipping down the stairs quietly, she decided to go to the common room while everyone else was still stuck in class to avoid being mocked some more, and maybe she could just turn in earlier than usual. 

Lily was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize where her feet were taking her until she looked up and saw that she was in a wide, brightly lit hall that she wasn't familiar with. Paintings of food lined the walls. She was sure that she had never been to this part of the castle before.

While she was staring longingly at a painting of a Thanksgiving feast to her left, a cold windy thing passed at her right. She looked up and saw Peeves the school poltergeist. 

"Well, well, well. Already tired of the lessons your dear teachers have worked so hard over to teach you, Evans?" he said wickedly, grinning in an eerie sort of way.

"N-no, Peeves. I just went to the girls' bathroom and got lost on the way back," Lily lied quickly. "Um, if you could just tell me how to get back—"

"Oh, don't worry. You don't have to lie to me. I promise not to tell any of the professors about your playing hooky. Scout's honor." Peeves put up his right hand in mock-pledge, pretending (without much success) to look solemn. 

"Please, Peeves, don't call anybody…please—"

"ATTENTION TEACHERS! LILY EVANS IS SKIPPING CLASS! SHE CONFESSED HER RULE-BREAKING UNKNOWINGLY, AND IS PREPARED TO FACE WHATEVER HORRIBLE CONSEQUENCE THAT HER HEAD OF HOUSE IS WILLING TO GIVE—" 

"Shut up, Peeves!" Lily hissed, hearing Peeves' voice reverberating through the whole hall. Peeves ignored her and glided away, shouting at the top of his lungs. 

Panicking, Lily ran in the opposite direction. She heard footsteps from where Peeves had gone and looked back, but no one had seen her yet. She collided into a painting of a bowl of fruit and slipped on the newly waxed floor.

Getting up with stars in front of her eyes, she reached up a hand at the large painting to right herself. Her fingers slid over the pear in the painting and she could feel it turning into a green doorknob. It was the perfect time for a secret passage, so without hesitance she wrenched the hidden door open and dived into the room, as the footsteps following her seemed nearer. 

She got up and found herself staring at the most peculiar-looking creatures she had ever encountered in the wizarding world.

"Yes? What is Miss doing here at this time, at this time? Isn't yous supposed to be in class, Miss?" one of the weird creatures squeaked in a high-pitched voice. 

"Er—" Lily started to say, but the footsteps outside were getting louder and heavier by the second. "I can't explain right now! Just—hide me! Please!" A moment later several of the creatures were pushing her into a cabinet and shutting the door. She looked around at the dim space and saw that she was surrounded by all forms of bread that were neatly stacked on shelves. The cabinet was magically expanded, so she hid in a corner, behind a particularly gigantic basket brimming with French bread.

There were muffled voices outside, including that of the creature who had given her an unusual greeting at the door. A human voice—an adult's, more specifically—was speaking angrily. A few minutes later the yelling died down and Lily figured that the adult had left. A stream of light pierced the darkness in the cabinet and a creature stepped inside. 

"Miss…the caretaker has left now, miss… Dipelfis thinks miss can be comings outs now." Lily sighed in relief and stepped out. The smell of bread still clung to her.

"Thanks. I really owe you one," she told "Dipelfis" gratefully. Then she looked around, realizing that she was actually in an extremely large chamber with hundreds of stoves and five long tables all in it. Four tables were positioned just like the House tables in the Great Hall, while the other table was in the same position as the High Table. This must be the kitchen.

Lily's stomach rumbled and she checked her watch. "Seven already…hey, do you guys mind giving me some food? I don't think I can go to the Great Hall now…"

A few of the creatures eagerly pushed a small table and a chair out of a corner of the room, and laid all sorts of food on it. All the others were piling food onto the long tables, which disappeared and must have been transported to the real House tables. 

Another creature pushed her onto the chair and when everything was done, they all looked at her expectantly.

"Er…thanks," Lily said. The creatures all looked pleased and just watched her. 

"Uh, I mean, I don't mean to be rude but…what are you?" she asked uncomfortably. 

"We is house elves, miss," squeaked Dipelfis. "It is our jobs to keeps the Hogwarts Castle clean and neat, and to cooks for the students and teachers' foods, miss."

"Oh." Lily picked up her spoon and fork. She had barely done so when one of the house elves took a bowl of roast beef and put a serving on her plate. 

"Thanks," she said, smiling at the elf. The elf just bowed low and went back to the line of others who were eagerly watching Lily.

Lily enjoyed eating in the kitchen; there were no students here who could bother her or make fun of her, only industrious house elves who attended to her every request. She was a bit uneasy when she was eating and they were all just staring at her. She wasn't used to people—er, creatures looking at her all throughout a meal. But they were there, waiting for her to ask for something so that they could accomplish it. 

"Well, thanks again," Lily said brightly to the house elves when she was back outside the kitchens. The "door" was wide open and the house elves were all beaming at her from inside. "You guys are really nice. You won't tell anybody that I skipped class, would you?"

"No, miss. If that is miss' wish, then we will keep our silence for her," some house elves chorused.

"But what if the Headmaster asks you about it?" she asked. By now she knew a lot about house elves and their lifestyle. 

Dipelfis, the door elf, scratched the back of his neck. "We cannot disobeys our master," he confessed to Lily. "But we shall say so only when he comes and asks. We respects miss' secret, miss, and we hopes miss will not be mad if our master comes to question us."

"If that's the way it has to be, then go ahead," Lily assured. "I just feel a little guilty, though, asking you to do something for me when I owe you so much."

The house elves all looked shocked, but Lily figured this was because they said they were never treated like equals by wizards. She couldn't see why people degraded them. They were so nice. "We-we thanks miss for her kindness," Dipelfis stammered. "If miss wishes, she can go to the kitchens when she wants."

"Really?" Lily said. "I'll find some way to give back what I owe you." The house elves all bowed again, and she closed the door. 

She headed back to the Gryffindor Tower. It was completely deserted, to Lily's relief, and she went up to the dormitory. 

*****  

Lily knew that the next day, she couldn't hide anymore. But she wasn't going to let everybody push her around again. She was going to give James and Sirius a piece of her mind.

Waking up far earlier than the others, she prepared for school. She then went down to the common room. Just when she was going down the stairs, she heard voices.

"Sirius, you should say sorry," Lily recognized the voice of Remus.

"Why should I? I was simply stating—er, singing the truth!" Sirius' voice exclaimed.

"But you hurt her feelings, Sirius. She didn't even come back to Transfiguration yesterday! She wasn't in the Great Hall at dinner either." Lily was surprised to hear that it was James talking. 

"Me? What about you? You were probably the one who laughed the hardest."

"Next to _you_. I only laughed harder than you because your mouth's too tied up with singing insults at innocent people. But fine, if you think you're too popular to say sorry to Lily, then I'll do it myself. Just don't blame me when she stays mad at you."

"No James, he has to apologize. He was the one who directly hurt Lily. It won't be enough if it's only us who do it," said Remus reasonably.

"I'm not going to apologize! No way in hell!" 

James sighed. "Sirius, stop acting like a child—"

"But I _am_ a child!"

"No, you're _child_ish. Grow up," James said.

"Duh, like I don't grow older everyday," retorted Sirius.

Remus shook his head. "Sirius…"

"You're being a prat," James finished.

"OI!"

"But it's true," Remus agreed with James. "Come on, all you have to do is say 'I'm sorry.' Is that too much to ask?"

"Jeez! You sure make me sound like a major jerk, don't you?! You know what I think?" 

"What?" both James and Remus said in unison.

"I'll do it."

***** 

"You will?" James asked, amazed.

"Whatever. Just don't call me a prat! Come on, let's go to the Great Hall and eat. I'm beyond hungry."

"You're always hungry," Remus commented.

"Damn straight. You should know that well by now. Besides, I have a reason of being hungry. It's time for breakfast."

"Which breakfast? The one at seven AM, the one at seven thirty, or the one at quarter past eight?" James asked sarcastically.

"James. You are eleven years old, and you don't know how to read time? You should be ashamed of yourself," Sirius replied in a pretend shocked voice.

James rolled his eyes. "I was merely stating the fact that you have three breakfasts a day, and you have just added another one to the list by scheduling a quarter to seven into your meal agenda."

"Are we going to eat breakfast or not?" Remus interrupted, breaking their bicker session. "Not that I'm particularly hungry, but since you were the ones who made the suggestion…"

"_Sirius _made the suggestion," James corrected, and sauntered over to the portrait hole. "Let's go."

"Since when do you give in to Sirius' hunger-caused orders?" Remus asked him. For all the days he had known James, he seldom agreed with Sirius about something or other and they argued all the time. But they still considered themselves friends.

"Since I found out that it's pointless to hinder the bottomless pit from his various feeding times," James said matter-of-factly. The three boys' voices became gradually softer and more distant as they left. 

*****  

When it was safe to come out, Lily entered the common room and flopped onto an armchair by the fire. Well, no use going to the Great Hall now. Without somebody accompanying her, she would probably be the marauders' first victim of a new prank. Then again, she wondered if having a person walking beside her would stop them from getting on with their practical jokes…

She just couldn't believe what she heard. Sirius Black, the most popular first year boy in school, agreeing to apologize to her? And she thought all kids who had fame in their heads were too full of pride to bow in a duel. It would be nice to finally get the apologies she deserved from certain people.

Of course, sorry wouldn't be enough.

Lily's mouth stretched into a wide grin. After yesterday, she couldn't lose again. She would think of something—even breaking the rules, yes—that would make the marauders regret that they had ever messed with her. Something that would always pop into their minds whenever they thought of making another prank on Lily. Something that would keep them from bugging her until the rest of the school year. 

Other students started pouring into the common room, and thankfully, none of them took much notice to Lily, nor were reminded of yesterday's public spectacle. She needed to go somewhere else to formulate a plan.

"Hey, you. Where were you yesterday? I heard Peeves shouting something about playing hooky…" Chase said from behind her.

Lily was startled. "Oh, good morning," she greeted, slightly hesitant if this girl was going to act nice to her throughout or if she was just playing an act that she could turn later into a mocking session. The former stood much more apparent than the latter. "I…just wasn't feeling well, so I went to the hospital wing. I came out a few minutes earlier than the end of class but I got lost, and I found that boisterous poltergeist gliding out of nowhere," she lied. Wait, when did she start lying to people? She _never _did that.

"Really…" Chase looked like she didn't believe a word of what Lily said, but she didn't comment on it, to Lily's relief. Lily supposed it was because she never really was a good liar. "Do you want to go downstairs and eat?" she asked finally.

"Sure," Lily said, happy that now she had at least one person who wasn't embarrassed of being seen with her in public. "I mean, if that's OK with you…"

Chase smirked. "Silly, why would I invite you if I didn't want you to come with me? Come on, we have to get to class early anyway, our Potions teacher is the most vindictive we have so far. He'd probably bite my head off again like last time if I was late even just a single second…"

The two chatted for a while as they walked to the Great Hall. Chase did most of the talking, but in a way that didn't make Lily feel like she was a chatterbox. Lily was mostly the listener because she had a feeling that if she said something wrong, Chase would think she was lame and go on her merry way without Lily to find better, more articulate friends. 

"Why are you always so quiet?" Chase voiced the question out loud when Lily didn't realize she had stopped giving a blow-by-blow account of how she purposefully flung a dragon liver at one of the Slytherins that caused him to knock over a cauldronful of a sleeping draught. The whole of it had spilled onto their professor's head, causing him to fall into a deep stupor that ended the class an hour early. 

"What? Oh, I just don't like talking very much," Lily said quietly. 

"Don't like talking, huh? Then I guess I bored you with my mindless chatter all the way here."

Lily shook her head. "No, not really. I just…I have a lot of things on my mind."

Chase was silent for a moment. "Thinking of a way to get revenge on those creeps?" she guessed.

Lily stopped in her tracks, goggling at Chase. "How did you know?" she asked, amazed and having a sneaking suspicion that the girl could read minds.

Chase laughed. "You just look all serious, like you were plotting someone's murder or something. And I figured that the only people you would like to plan homicide on would be them," she answered, gesturing across the Great Hall, where the marauders were gobbling up on bacon and eggs. 

"Am I that predictable?" Lily asked, smiling slightly. 

"Hmmm…let me think, yes, you are," Chase deadpanned. "But don't give it away or they'll notice. You have to know when to act neutral. It's like poker. Bluffing is key."

"You must know a lot about being neutral," said Lily offhandedly, noticing that some people were starting to look at them and whispering.

Chase followed her line of vision and rolled her eyes at the people watching. "Why don't you go buy a life? Find something else to do other than gossiping about innocent people who haven't done anything wrong," she snapped at a particularly interested Hufflepuff boy. The Hufflepuff immediately returned to chewing his pancakes.

"Thanks," Lily said. She was really starting to like this girl.

"Don't mention it," Chase said carelessly. "People today are so superficial. Unless you show a mask and stay indifferent of whatever they think of you, you'll turn into a basket case." They reached the Gryffindor table. Chase sat down three chairs away from Sirius Black.

"Ei Chse," Sirius said through a mouthful of eggs. "Whffs fp?"

"In English, please. I'm not a Martian," Chase replied, serving herself with the plate of bacon that was almost empty after Sirius was through with it. 

Sirius swallowed. "Never mind," he said, noticing how Chase wasn't going to get along with him in good terms, not with Lily beside her, completely ignoring Sirius. 

Lily saw Remus nudge Sirius with his elbow and knew what was going on. 

"Just say it, Sirius, you insensitive git," James hissed at him, avoiding Lily's eyes. 

"Why me first? I'll follow you guys. Come on…"

"Why you first? Because you were the one who did most of the insulting, stupid. Now if you don't apologize, I'll hex your hair—"

"Nooooo, not my beautiful hair," moaned Sirius. "OK, OK, I'll do it…just don't touch my ha—"

"Stop acting all dramatic," James said, rolling his eyes.

Sirius stood up and went over to Lily, who looked like she was trying to hold in laughter. Sirius looked like he was more willing to pee in his pants than ask for forgiveness from her. Chase, who was watching, was smirking. She averted her eyes from Lily's, fearing that once she made eye contact, both of them would burst out laughing. Which was always true, in these cases. 

"L-lily, I-er- I—"

"You were saying something, Sirius?" Lily asked in a taunting tone, looking amused.

"Um…it's just that…I mean, I can say this is rather…er, compulsory…"

"Amazing. He actually knows what compulsory means," Chase muttered to Lily, who couldn't help it and cracked a smile. 

"And…don't get any—uh…anyway, I just…" Sirius continued stuttering.

James threw up his hands and looked skyward. "Oh, for the love of—Sirius, stop acting like a retard."

"He probably is one," Chase said in a bored voice, waiting for Sirius to spit out an apology.

"Well, I… er, Lily, I just want to-to say…that I—I'm s-s-s-so-rry," Sirius finally said, looking pleased with himself. Chase caught Lily's eye. Lily understood.

"Hmmm, what did you say, Sirius? I didn't quite catch that last part…" Lily teased, almost giving in to the wickedness of Laughter and giggling. 

"Noooooo….don't make me—say it again—"

By then, a lot of people had started listening in, trying to see what was going on.

"Come on, Sirius, act like a man," Chase said, smirking still.

"FINE! I'll shout it if I have to! LILY EVANS, I'M SORRY!!!" 

Spectators were shocked. A few girls who had a crush on Sirius were open-mouthed, and some were merely bewildered. Others were starting to whisper like what they did when they saw Chase with Lily. The hissing and murmuring spread around them like wildfire. Sirius was beet red with embarrassment.

"Did you hear that? Sirius Black, apologizing to the geek…"

"Impossible…My ears, I couldn't have—"

"Man, I never thought he'd actually do that. I mean, look at her! Nobody would want to apologize to a nerd like that…"

"Maybe his friends made a bet that if he could do it—"

"This is the most unbelievable thing I've ever witnessed…"

Lily heard all of it, but wasn't willing to give in to it now. She remembered what Chase had said. _"Unless you show_ _a mask and stay indifferent of whatever they think of you, you'll turn into a basket case." _Somehow, it made her feel better. 

And somehow she knew that Chase Tarlise was going to be her friend. After all, she had proved to be one in more than one case already.

Things were finally looking up.

*****  

**AN – **Oh no…I'm late again, aren't I? I still have a dumb fable to write, and I don't want to waste my holidays for a school project. I hope nobody forgot about this story just yet, though I don't blame you if you do. Then again, if you're reading this right now, then you remembered. I'm so happy! You actually did! Anyway, this chapter wasn't focused on Lily's revenge because she had to develop a friendship with at least _one _person…and Chase was the only one who seemed suitable to the role since she's so indifferent of how the rumor mill works. Next chap (which will probably be in after I update my two other stories) I'll start with getting even. It's crazy of me to do three stories at once! I guess I really am a lunatic…oh yeah, and review. I'll be needing it to keep sane.


	5. Getting Even

Atop the Popularity Scale By Dimantrien 

Chapter 5: Getting Even 

The next day, Lily woke up feeling happier than she remembered. It was still early, but she got out of bed and prepared for school. By the time she finished showering and dressing up in her school clothes, the other girls were already up. 

"'Morning, Lily," Celeste greeted as she passed the redhead and headed for the bathroom. 

"Have you seen Chase?" Lily asked before Celeste could shut the door. 

Celeste stifled a yawn. "Down in the Great Hall already, I think."

"Thanks," Lily said, grabbing her book bag before heading off for the Great Hall. 

As Celeste said, Chase was already there, tipping bacon and eggs onto her plate and looking half asleep. 

"Hey," Chase said as Lily slid into the seat next to her. She handed Lily a roll of parchment. "Here it is. Took me all afternoon in the library to look it up." 

Lily scanned the parchment with her eyes and grinned. "This is perfect. Thanks, Chase!" 

Chase shrugged, as if saying it was no big deal. "What do you need it for, anyway? We're not gonna learn how to do those charms until… well, I don't suppose we're going to be taught that at all…" 

At that same moment there was laughter all around the Great Hall, and the two girls swiveled around to see the object of amusement—the Slytherins, who all looked like they had aged fifty years as soon as they sat down on their chairs. Lily looked in the opposite direction at the entrance of the Great Hall, and sure enough, there were the marauders, laughing the hardest as they made their way to their seats at the Gryffindor table. 

"Ah. I think I know the answer to my question already," Chase said dryly. "Want to get even with them, huh?" 

Lily nodded. 

Chase smirked. "Well, count me in. You can't do all the work yourself, besides; those spells are really complex, it'd be better if you had a helping hand."

"You sure? I mean, you don't have anything to do with it, and you might get in trouble too if they found out I did it," Lily pointed out, though she was surprised and relieved that Chase wanted to help her.

"I don't care. They should get a taste of their own medicine, and this way, they'll learn not to mess with you. Anyway, they work in a group, so why shouldn't you?" 

Lily smiled. "I guess you're right. So, here's what we're going to do…" 

*****  

Their first class for the day, Transfiguration, was pretty normal (as normal as it got in a class with the marauders, anyway), except for the part where Sirius' newly transfigured ceramic cup splashed boiling tea all over Professor McGonagall, seeing as the cup still had the tail and legs of a rabbit and jumped up onto her table. Sirius got detention, but for the rest of the class the accident was a blessing in disguise because McGonagall commented that transfiguring animals into inanimate objects was too much for first years to handle, and their workload in that particular class lessened. 

"I still don't see why she should punish me after I just proved that her lessons were too much to handle for us," Sirius said grumpily as the marauders shuffled out of the Transfiguration classroom.

James rolled his eyes. He was the only student who transfigured his rabbit into a satisfactory and completely non-living teacup. "You were perfectly capable of transfiguring the rabbit. You just scammed that whole 'accident' so that McGonagall wouldn't give us as much homework as usual." 

"I did no such thing! _You're_ just annoyed that you won't get to show off what you can do in class if she gave us more advanced stuff to do, Mister I'm-a-Transfiguration-hot-shot!" Sirius retorted. 

"Yeah, right! As if there's somebody I want to impress in her class, it's just us and a bunch of ugly girls!" James countered. Celeste, who was walking by, glared at him. 

"Sure there is, there's McGonagall herself, you wanna be the teacher's pet!" Sirius shot back, grinning. 

Remus sighed. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why the two of them bickered like that every hour just to annoy each other and stay best friends all the same. "Guys, if you keep arguing like that we're going to be late for Herbology…" 

"I do _not _aspire to be McGonagall's perfect little student, nor do I wish to play a permanent servant during class or be a butt-kissing suck-up for any professor!" James said to Sirius, completely ignoring Remus. 

Sirius just shook his head and said in a teasing tone, "Sure, Jamie, sure…" 

"At least I don't try to scald the teachers to death because of being too lazy to do any _challenging_ work in class," retaliated James. 

"Interesting. So that's what your motives were," somebody spoke up behind the three of them. Chase and Lily didn't look too keen to get to Herbology class early either.

Lily shook her head. "And there was me thinking that you just wanted to distract her so that you could pull another prank in class," she remarked. She brushed past them and broke into a jog with Chase strolling just behind her, slowly enough not to walk beside Lily in the narrow corridor but fast enough to put a good distance between her and the marauders. 

"D'you think they're still mad?" James spoke up when they were nearly at the greenhouse. He hadn't realized that they had fallen silent after the two girls left. 

Remus shrugged. "Dunno. Probably, I think. I'm just wondering 'cause if they were, they wouldn't act civil with the two of you, let alone talk to you at all." 

"The _two_ of us?" Sirius raised his eyebrows. "What about you? You don't think they're angry with you at all?" he demanded. 

Remus merely shrugged again and pushed open the door to Greenhouse One, muttering an apology to Professor Sprout, who looked a bit irritated at the trio's tardiness. 

"Maybe they're not mad anymore. You already apologized, right?" James persisted as they caught up with Remus at their usual table. 

"Well, _I _think they're plotting something," Sirius declared. "There's no way that girls act friendly right after something that we do to annoy them. Unless it's really just _acting_." 

"You're too paranoid, my friend," Remus said, putting on his dragon hide gloves and gingerly touching the plant on their table, which looked more like several branching stems spilling with hundreds of green caterpillars than a shrub with leaves. 

*****  

Another week passed without event, and Sirius' suspicions of Lily plotting something against them finally died down. Currently they were stuck with a long History of Magic assignment on how primeval wizards invented the first wand. 

Peter, finished with the two-foot-long essay, hovered over his friends who were seated in chairs in the common room. 

"Wipe that smile off your face, you gloating git," Sirius growled in annoyance as Peter skipped past him yet again. He was a little short tempered as his essay was still four inches too short even though he had pretty much covered the whole topic. 

"Done!" Both James and Remus shouted gleefully at the same time, and they laughed and high-fived each other. This, of course, only made Sirius moodier. 

"What are you two so happy about, it's just a dumb essay," Sirius muttered, and, much to his irritation, his friends only laughed more and started packing up their things. 

"Good luck with those remaining four inches, Sirius," James singsonged before the three of them went up to the boys' dormitory. 

"Yeah, yeah, abandon me, will you," Sirius said grumpily, even though he knew his friends were out of earshot. He was contemplating on what to add to his homework when he heard a sudden commotion by the entrance to the common room. People were crowding around in that area, as if someone who just entered caught their attention. 

He tried to focus on his essay, wanting to get it over and done with, but he kept hearing snatches of conversation such as "What happened to her?" "Is she all right?" "Did somebody hex her?" and "Poor thing." Sighing and realizing that he couldn't concentrate with the noise all around him, he stood up and went to see what the fuss was about.

What he saw was the crowd parting to let whoever they were talking about through, and Sirius was surprised to see Lily and Chase behind Celeste, who was asleep, levitated, and looking like she was having some sort of nightmare. She kept twitching and mumbling incoherent words, occasionally making a choking sound, as if she were trying not to scream. 

"Everything's fine; we've got it all under control," Chase kept saying to the other Gryffindors. She seemed a bit impatient with their curiosity and waved her wand, making Celeste float forward slightly faster. 

Lily didn't look too tolerant with all their questions herself. "No, she doesn't need to go to the hospital wing… We know just the right spell to cure her." They managed to shake off the inquisitive crowd and rushed to the staircase leading to the girls' dorm.

"Are you _sure _she's going to be OK?" Sirius heard Lily mutter to Chase. In their distraction, they didn't seem to notice him three feet away from them. 

Chase nodded. "Of course she will be. She volunteered for it in the first place, remember? And she's only been for a couple of minutes… I think you've got the hang of it, and the counter spell is a piece of cake."

Sirius continued to watch them until they disappeared up the stairs. "Wonder what they're up to," he said to himself, but didn't ponder on their weird conversation as he _still_ had four more inches of parchment to fill up.

*****  

It was Saturday morning. Lily bounced into the Great Hall with a grin on her face that the other students didn't take notice of, as they were all still a bit drowsy. She slid into the seat across Chase and beside Celeste. 

"You're a right ray of sunshine today," Celeste commented as she tipped a bagel onto her plate. Her features showed no sign of concern over what had happened to her the night before, but now that Lily had joined the two of them, the other Gryffindors remembered the incident and started talking in low tones.

"No wonder. Today's the day she's going to get back at the Two Terrors of Gryffindor Tower." Chase stirred her porridge around with a spoon. 

"What a creative title," Celeste mock-complimented, rolling her eyes. 

"Are you fine now? I mean, after what happened yesterday?" Lily asked in a concerned tone. 

Celeste waved her hand dismissively. "Yep. No need to worry about me." 

"Yeah right. After we cast the counter spell on you and you fell asleep again, I heard you saying something about the horrors of getting an eight in a ten-item quiz," Chase snickered. 

Celeste scowled. "It's not my fault that charm had recurring effects after it's been lifted," she protested.

"Uh-huh…and you just don't want to admit that you're a paranoid perfectionist."

Lily shushed the bickering twins and tilted her head to the entrance of the Hall. Several people sitting near there had gone quiet, and the echoing sound of panicked screams could be heard. 

Next thing they knew, two dark-haired boys were running through the tables, knocking some walking students down or accidentally shoving others' faces smack in the middle of their porridge as they pushed past. The pair of first years, who were unmistakably recognized as James Potter and Sirius Black, had identical expressions of panic and fear on their faces, and they kept babbling loudly about something that Lily and her friends couldn't hear as they were too far away, though they could tell that the two looked ridiculous. People who could understand what the distressed duo were saying suddenly burst into laughter or snickered amusedly. 

James and Sirius were apparently heading for the High Table. Most of their teachers stood up in curiosity and concern; no wonder, because the two boys looked like they had lost their marbles. Lily, who was chuckling at the sudden change in their behavior, shakily reached for her wand and pointed it at Sirius and James. _"S-s-sono—HAHAHAHAHA—__ru-ru-HAHAHA—__rus__!"_

"You can't do it like that, you're laughing your head off," Celeste managed to say to Lily crossly, though how she could use that tone while laughing herself was a mystery. _"Sono—" _Sirius suddenly burst into tears while screaming in a high-pitched voice, and Celeste laughed hysterically. _"Sono—_heehee—_sono_—"__

"Oh for Merlin's sake," Chase said, trying to contain her laughter, _"Sonorus!" _She finally did what Lily and Celeste in their hilarious fit could not, and the spell hit James and Sirius on the mark. 

"NOOOO!!! MUMMY, MY HAIR, THEY CAN'T DO THIS!!!" Sirius wailed, running straight at McGonagall and glomping her, sobbing. 

No Voice-Magnifying spell was required to raise McGonagall's voice, as she was already yelling at the top of her lungs. "BLACK, LET GO OF ME THIS INSTANT!!!!!!!" 

"THEY'RE-THEY'RE G-GONNA EAT ME!!! THAT B-BIG RED B-B-B-BALL'S GONNA HAVE ME FOR BREAKFAST!!! SOMEBODY SAVE ME!!!" James yelled in a terrified voice, following Sirius and clutching McGonagall's arm. 

Most students who were bewildered at their antics started to chuckle now that they could clearly hear James and Sirius, thanks to Chase. Whatever state that the two of them were in, they didn't appear to be aware of the gales of laughter erupting all around the Hall.

"STOP BLUBBERING NONSENSE, POTTER, AND BLACK, _I AM NOT YOUR MUM!!!" McGonagall shrieked, trying vainly to release herself from James's and Sirius' death grips. Her outburst only caused the students to laugh more, and their giggles echoed and bounced off the walls. _

Even the staff was too entertained to be of any help to poor Professor McGonagall. Professor Flitwick was giggling so hard he toppled off the three copies of _Hogwarts, a History _that he stacked on the seat of his chair. Professor Sprout was choking on her bacon because of laughing. Dumbledore and the other teachers were all sniggering heartily, and even Professor Ridgewood's mouth twitched in obvious amusement, of course, it was partly because James and Sirius were the students he hated the most and he took joy in any event where they were ridiculed and laughed at, which never seemed to happen. Until now. 

"CEASE THIS AT ONCE! IF YOU THINK THAT THIS SICK JOKE OF YOURS IS HIGHLY AMUSING, I WILL GIVE YOU TWICE THE NUMBER OF DETENTIONS YOU HAVE ACCUMULATED THIS WEEK!!!" 

"BUT MUM, THEY'RE TRYING TO DYE MY HAIR P-P-_PINK!!! THIS IS IN-INJUSTICE!!! YOU CAN'T LET THEM DO THIS TO ME, YOU CAN'T!!!" Sirius screamed, letting go of McGonagall only briefly to clutch his perfect hair. _

"NOBODY IS EVILLY PLOTTING TO DYE YOUR HAIR! AND DON'T YOU YELL AT ME, ESPECIALLY ABOUT ABSURD THINGS THAT YOU OBVIOUSLY BLURT OUT BEFORE THINKING!!!" McGonagall screamed.

Lily rolled around on the floor, banging her fists and practically crying with mirth. Both students' and staff's laughter reached a decibel so high it could probably be heard all the way at Trelawney's classroom. 

"They're—HAHAHAHAHA—acting like lunatics—HAHAHA—who're trying to converse—HAHAHAHA—from different mountains! HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Lily chortled.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're just about ready to hit the loony bin yourself," Chase stated. She had stopped laughing, but only because she'd suffocate if she kept on. 

"AAAARGGGHHH!!! THEY'RE GANGING UP ON ME!!! I DON'T WANNA DIE YET!!! I DON'T TASTE GOOD!!! DON'T EAT ME!!!" James hollered, and at the same time McGonagall shouted, "FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, SHUT UP!!! YOU'RE BREAKING MY EARDRUMS!!! IT'S _NOT FUNNY, DUMBLEDORE!!!" This caused Chase to start laughing again, and she and Celeste leaned against each other for support; Celeste wiping off the tears streaming down her cheeks with the back of her hand, and Chase clutching her aching stomach. _

"Think we should put the counter curse on them now?" Chase managed to choke out to Lily, who was still sprawled on the floor. 

Lily stood up, still shaking, just as James yelled "I'LL NEVER PLAY QUIDDITCH AGAIN!!! JUST DON'T EAT ME!!!" She collapsed into her chair. "I don't know," she said breathlessly, "let's just wait a little bit more."

After what seemed like forever, in which James, Sirius and Professor McGonagall yelled themselves hoarse some more (Lily doubted they could understand what the others were saying at that point), Dumbledore stood up. His ever-twinkling eyes shining in merriment, he spoke, "It is in my opinion that we have all been entertained enough; now, I beg whoever thought it humorous to perform a Confundus Charm on Misters Black and Potter to please stand and remedy them. Please don't hesitate if you have fears of being punished, I merely ask you to return them to their proper state, besides, dear Minerva seems to be quite distressed." 

The Hall suddenly fell silent, with only the two pranksters and McGonagall left shouting, and all laughter died down as everybody looked around to see who dared do this to the ever-so-popular Potter and Black. Without hesitation, Lily and Chase stood up, and for the first time all day a hint of nervousness passed Celeste's face as the two made their way to the High Table. 

Dumbledore nodded to them. Lily and Chase raised wands simultaneously and each uttered a different spell. 

_"Deplexio," _Lily said clearly, while Chase recited, _"Sieszenundum Eranence." _At once, the deranged expressions of James and Sirius changed into their usual complacent countenance, but their faces turned to confusion again as they realized that they were still clutching onto McGonagall like little kids who had just found their mother after an hour of being lost in the supermarket. 

As the students and staff watched their reactions, they all started to snigger once again, and even more so when James and Sirius jumped away from the purple-faced Professor McGonagall with "What the hell?" written all over their rapidly reddening faces. 

Lily and Chase, who were quite done laughing and believed that they had humiliated the two boys enough, high-fived each other. 

"Mission complete…" Lily started with a big grin. 

"…with the results a complete success," Chase finished, smirking. 

Dumbledore clapped his hands and the laughter subsided. "Excellent work, Miss Evans, Miss Tarlise. Since nobody seems to have been hurt or injured in any way, with the exception of temporary deafness, you will not be punished. It is Saturday morning, after all, and nobody has been disturbed. Off you go then, finish your breakfast, and bring Misters Potter and Black with you, as I believe they are eager for an explanation of this day's events." 

McGonagall couldn't hear a word of what the Headmaster said thanks to James and Sirius, but she seemed to understand that Lily and Chase were responsible and they were getting off without punishment. She opened her mouth furiously but no words came out, and she remembered that she had yelled herself hoarse and she lost her voice to it. So now she was forced to do nothing and spend the rest of the weekend suffering under momentary deafness _and muteness.  _

Lily clapped James and Sirius on the back before she went past them back to the Gryffindor Table. "Now we're even," she told them brightly. 

And for once in their lives, the two troublemakers couldn't find a suitable retort to her remark, and were speechless.

*****  

**A/N – **This chapter is more than four months late, and I doubt that anybody's still reading this fic…but if you are, then give me some feedback! (In review form, of course…) It's not that I lost inspiration, but I put this story on hold so that I could finish _Out of Her Shell first. I've been getting more response from that fic so it only made sense to update that first… I guess I'm not good at juggling three fics at once. Sorry for the inconvenience.  ****_


	6. On TopFinally

**Atop the Popularity Scale**

**By Dimantrien**

**Chapter 6: On Top…Finally  **

Remus Lupin stared at his two friends as he ate his breakfast, still slightly inclined to laugh. The shocked look on their faces seemed to him to be permanently stuck. Sirius' mouth had dropped open ten minutes ago and still hadn't closed, and the embarrassed flush on James's face hadn't lightened once. He bit his tongue to keep from guffawing out loud and spraying his dazed friends with bits of egg and ham. "Sirius, close your mouth if you don't want a fly to swoop right in; it wouldn't make a very tasty breakfast. James, put powder on your face if you can't control your blood vessels," he ordered, smiling. At least it wasn't a _laugh. _

Sirius alternately closed and opened his mouth again, looking like a demented fish. Finally he turned his attention to his friend and exclaimed, "How did they _do that?! They'll _pay_ for this _right now!!!_" _

Sighing, Remus pointed out the veritable facts that obviously didn't register into Sirius' brain as it was still clouded with confusion and lunacy. "Sirius, I believe that they used magic to do that; you shouldn't pay them back because they did that to pay _you back, and even if you wanted to do so immediately, you can't do it _right now _because they left five minutes ago," he replied, saying the words slowly as if explaining a complicated answer to a small child. _

"What did we do to make them want to pay us back?" James asked, snapping out of his stupor too. 

Remus shook his head. "Merlin, where are your brains today? Have you forgotten all about Sirius' singing solo in the middle of the Charms corridor a few days ago?" 

"Oh, that," James said, understanding dawning on his face. Then he frowned. "Hey! You were there with us—how come they didn't pull the prank on you?!" he demanded, looking thoroughly disturbed that Remus didn't get his "fair share" of chastisement. 

Sirius' eyes widened, very much like the expression on his face a few minutes ago, except his mouth wasn't hanging open this time. He didn't say anything for a moment then burst out, "NO FAIR!!!"

"Well, that reaction was rather slow on the uptake," Remus quipped. Sirius shot him a look.

"This is injustice! _We'll be humiliated for the rest of our school year because of this, and one of our cohorts gets off scot-free and has the privilege of making fun of us and reminding us of that horrible incident time and time again!!!" Sirius put his head in his hands and moaned. _

Remus rolled his eyes. "Stop being so overdramatic. You're not going to be harassed until the end of the school year just because of this," he assured.

Sirius brightened. "You mean it'll die out tomorrow."

"I didn't say _that. Judging from your and James's popularity, the school will be talking about it for weeks, and it's extremely probable that all the Slytherins will enjoy torturing you and doing animated replays in imitation of what you two kept babbling about, or the part where you kept  clinging to McGonagall," Remus answered matter-of-factly, grinning at the mental image. _

"Well, that was reassuring," Sirius said with a scowl, standing up. "I'm going back to bed and pretend this is just a bad dream. If I'm lucky I won't wake up again," he announced, walking quickly out of the Hall. Whispers followed him from the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, while, as Remus predicted, the Slytherins burst into laughter once again and started reciting the stuff he kept screaming about his hair going pink, with perfect intonation. Luckily Sirius was quite fast, and long gone before Severus Snape could mimic his vain whining. 

Remus and James followed after a few minutes, and passed by the Slytherin Table, where Snape was still play-acting.

"Oh, _my hair, they have no right to turn it pink!" Snape mocked, pretending to wring his hands in front of his friends. They sniggered almost imperceptibly. _

"Wish they would, if you dyed it, you'd be lucky it wouldn't look as greasy and dirty as it is now," Remus snapped scathingly at him. Even though Remus _would tease Sirius about all this later on, he didn't like it when the Slytherins mocked it the way they did. At least he was Sirius' friend, so he had somewhat of a right to joke about it, but slime like Snape made it worse by putting malice into it._

"I doubt that, but why don't we try it out? Don't worry, _Severus, _we'll make sure to put 'dye Snape's hair pink' on top of our priority list, if it will be oh so beneficial to that disaster case you call hair that you wear on your oversized head," James said.

Snape narrowed his eyes. "You should talk, Potter," he spat with a malicious smile. "Apparently a good dose of public humiliation isn't enough to even slightly shrink your over-inflated ego." 

James just smirked at him, showing him that he wasn't affected in the slightest. "I wouldn't call it ego, slimeball," he retorted. "It's called _defiance." And with that, he and Remus sauntered out of the Hall, some students even stopping their grinning and staring in awe at the boldness of James Potter._

*******  **

Sitting in the deserted common room, Lily, Chase and Celeste started doing their Transfiguration homework in front of the fire. Lily was quiet, the quill in her hand flying across the parchment and onto the next line ever so quickly, which greatly annoyed Chase, who apparently hated Transfiguration and sucked at it. Celeste didn't make matters better by alternately giving "tips" to Chase and scolding her about slacking off, making a very distinct imitation of a certain Transfiguration teacher.

Chase tuned out of her twin's rants, which she dubbed as "The Dreaded Litany of Transfiguration and Responsibility by Celeste Schoharie." She mumbled things like "Uh-huh," "Right," and "Gotcha, sis" every few minutes without taking in a single word, tapping the feather end of her quill on her blank parchment and yawning. 

The three were in such an undisturbed mood that they jumped up, startled, when somebody went through the portrait hole and stomped into the room. Lily looked up from her assignment, Chase glanced at the new arrival in hopes of getting away from her sister's dragging reprimands, and Celeste stopped talking. 

Sirius Black walked in the direction of the dorms, muttering and cursing all the way. He hadn't noticed them yet because he was staring at the floor and kicking the carpet every few moments. 

A grin broke out on Lily's face as she assumed what exactly had Sirius in a foul mood, and she opened her mouth to call out to him. Celeste put a hand on her shoulder and shook her head, silently saying "Don't start now." 

"Yo, Sirius," Chase greeted, and Sirius stopped walking to turn in their direction. 

His eyes narrowed and there was a tinge of red on his cheeks, but he didn't move nor say hi back.

"Take a seat, you don't want to stand there like a stationary idiot all day," Chase added sardonically, patting the arm of the armchair next to hers. Sirius mutely followed, plopping down on the chair, still at a loss for words. 

Celeste stood up and excused herself, thinking that this was a matter between her friends and Sirius' friends. She was just their test dummy, and she didn't fancy being caught in the crossfire of curses when things got ugly. She wisely said "See you three later," and hurried off to their dorm room.

"So," Lily said casually, dropping her quill and facing him. (She had finished her essay anyway.) 

"So." Sirius' voice was flat, and he had a look in his eyes that implied that he'd rather be anywhere else other than here, but he had his pride, and he wasn't going to let them know that their "payback" had gotten to him. 

"So…" Chase echoed them, tapping her quill again on her very neat and very wordless parchment impatiently. "So _what_?" 

Lily cracked a smile at her friend's remark. The thing was, she wasn't really in the mood to poke fun at Sirius right now; in fact, she had never intentionally poked fun at anybody before, because _she_ had always been the one being teased. "Having a good day?" she said slightly amusedly, though of course, it was a normal question.

Sirius snorted. "Lovely, actually," he responded sarcastically, a bite in his tone. 

Chase smirked. "Is that so? Wouldn't it be nice to have other days like this?" she asked innocently, but her dancing turquoise eyes gave her away. Lily shot her a look that Sirius didn't see, and Chase just shrugged. 

Obviously, Sirius wasn't that stupid, and caught right on. "I don't think so." He alternately clenched and unclenched his fists.

"Why not?" Chase rolled up her piece of parchment and stuck it back into her bag. "You just said it was a _lovely _day." 

Sirius crossed his arms. "You're the sarcastic cynic, Chase. If you don't get what that really meant then you'd be a hypocrite." 

Chase smiled wryly. "A hypocrite is someone who claims to have higher beliefs or standards than is the case. I think a better example would be a troublemaker who enjoys pulling pranks on people but gets all angry and accusatory when he's the one who's subjected to a practical joke." 

Sirius was silent. 

"But I'm sure you're not at all like that. Like Dumbledore said, it was just a little harmless prank, wasn't it?" Chase continued. 

"Yeah. You're Sirius Black, the guy who never takes anything seriously. No pun intended," Lily added, still smiling. 

Chase glanced back at her parchment. "If that's all cleared up, I'd like to be getting back on this stupid essay now." She paused. "I can't believe I just said I'd _like to finish it." _

Lily laughed. "You mean _start it," she pointed out. "There isn't a single word on that!" _

Chase scowled at her and scrawled something at the top. "That's something." 

It read, _Chase Selene Tarlise, First Year, Gryffindor. "I was thinking about something related to Transfiguration, actually," Lily said sardonically. _

"It _is related to Transfiguration. I'm a student, which means I take Transfiguration. First years have basic Transfiguration lessons. Gryffindor House's Head is the Transfiguration teacher," Chase replied smugly. _

Lily rolled her eyes. "You seemed to have put a lot of thought in making up your excuses." 

"Of course I do. I have a twin who's a school freak and acts like she's my substitute mom when I'm not doing my homework right. I have a lot of practice," Chase said mock-solemnly. A muffled voice from above them said, "I heard that!" Both Chase and Lily snickered.

From the portrait hole emerged two more people, and only Sirius turned to check who they were. He was still a bit paranoid after the prank, after all. 

Remus and James were walking toward them, both looking surprised that Sirius was sitting just two feet from Lily and Chase, and more surprised that the three in question weren't currently hurling curses at each other. 

"Hi, guys," Remus greeted. 

"Hello Remus," Lily greeted back. "And James," she added as an afterthought. 

"Same here," said Chase. 

"How'd you calm Sirius?" James suddenly asked. 

Lily looked at him blankly. "Pardon?"

"Oh, it was easy. All we needed to do was inadvertently tell him that he doesn't have the right to be mad about what we did when he must have committed things with the same general motive about three dozen times so far in the school year," Chase answered carelessly. 

James raised his eyebrows. "General motive?"

"Causing trouble for entertainment purposes," Chase responded, smiling in a gratified manner. "Isn't that what you and your friends always aim for?" 

"Oh. Yeah," James muttered, glancing sidelong at Sirius. 

Remus stepped forward with a slight smile playing about his lips. "I think everyone already agrees that there's no reason to hold a grudge against each other anymore so maybe it's about time that you all shake hands on things then we can go outside and do what normal people do on a sunny Saturday morning, which certainly doesn't include sitting around in armchairs in front of a stifling fire." 

Everybody nodded and Chase, ever the blunt one, said, "Remus, you're babbling. Did you realize that your entire summation consisted of only one sentence?" Remus scowled at her, which caused the others to laugh. 

Sirius stood up. "Yeah…I guess you're right. Sorry, Lils, Chase, I didn't mean to blow up on you two," he said, emphasizing his sincerity in his apology by slinging either of his arms on their shoulders. 

Chase shrugged and carefully eased Sirius' arm from her shoulder. 

"No problem," Lily replied with a grin as she felt Sirius' arm relax. She turned to look at James. "So, do you really have nightmares about the Quidditch balls eating you alive?"

*****  

Sirius kept a tight hold on Lily's shoulder as they exited the Gryffindor Tower, clearly accepting the retribution but still intent on finding out how the two girls could accomplish pulling a revenge act on him and James right under the marauders' noses. Not to mention exactly _what they did to make two fearless Gryffindors act like wimpy pansies in front of the whole student body. Naturally, for his curiosity to be fully satisfied, he had to drag the partners in crime along with him and his friends._

"OW! Damnit, Sirius, do you have leech blood in your veins? Detach yourself from my person this instant!" Lily screamed at him, startling several passers-by.

"Aw, don't worry Lils, if I were a leech I'd suck your blood outta you, and frankly, I don't feel like playing Dracula right now…or ever," Sirius added, shuddering slightly. Lily took the opportunity to pry herself out of Sirius' arm lock. She rubbed at her now sore neck.

"Gah…you were practically _choking_ me. Do you do this to all the people you want to leak information out of?" Lily whined. She and Sirius were in the lead, with Remus, James and Chase strolling behind them. They seemed to be enjoying the free show. 

"I wouldn't say he does it to _all_ of them, Lily," Chase said matter-of-factly. "After all, he didn't strangle _me." She grinned at her grimacing friend. _

"Oh, ha _ha__, you're hilarious, Tarlise," Lily said sarcastically, still massaging her neck muscles. _

"Glad to be of some service in providing comic relief," Chase said mock-pleasingly. 

They reached the grounds and followed Sirius, who was heading for the lake. Or the solid ground _beside the lake, more appropriately. _

Sirius plopped down on the slightly damp grass Indian-style. "There!" he exclaimed. "Now that we're all cozy and warm, we can say whatever needs to be said." 

Chase raised her eyebrows. "Sirius, it started drizzling two minutes ago, so I'd hardly think that we're cozy and warm, and the only thing that needs to be said is that you are a complete lunatic for dragging us out here with minor physical injury on one of our companions' part all for the sake of embarrassing yourself more by asking us to relive your humiliating but highly entertaining moment."

Sirius pretended to glare at her. "You're just like my friends, making wiseass cracks about my sanity—"

"Or lack thereof," James interjected with a snigger.

"—every chance they get, 24/7," Sirius continued, ignoring his best friend's remark.

"I wonder why," Chase said, rolling her eyes. "Fine, if you really are a nut case, then I guess there's no harm in making you suffer even more, and getting your willing consent to do so." She sat down on the grass next to him and the others followed suit.

"So, where should we start?" Lily asked, her mouth forming a grin again. She couldn't believe that Sirius Black was practically begging them to explain how exactly she and Chase pulled off their set-up emotional debacle in front of hundreds of students. Considering said students' quantity, she figured any normal human being who had gone through that much embarrassment would try anything and everything to pretend that it never happened. 

But of course, nobody said that Sirius Black was normal. Not even by wizarding standards. 

"How the hell you managed to pull off a prank like that without us even expecting it," Sirius promptly answered. 

Lily and Chase exchanged glances. "We-ell… it was pretty easy to make you lose suspicion if we waited a week before executing the plan," Lily said slowly.

"And simultaneously we could practice the spells we were going to use since they were a little harder to cast than we realized," Chase supplied. 

"Chase did the researching…"

"Lily supervised the charm sessions…"

"Chase found us the perfect guinea pig…"

"So _that's why Celeste looked like she'd been hexed yesterday!" Sirius interjected, looking put out by the fact that he hadn't figured out the dead giveaway that had been right in his face. _

"Yeah, and you sure predicted what would happen to you and James by just gawking at us last night along with the rest of the common room's occupants," Chase quipped. 

Sirius scowled. She didn't have to put it in actual words. "Sure, sure… That explains the no-suspecting-marauders part… What about the actual spells you used?" he asked, pointedly looking at Chase.

Chase shrugged. "I looked all of it up, but spells are basically Lily's department. She'll give you a lecture as detailed as any Hogwarts teacher could." 

"Yes, enlighten us, Professor Evans," Remus said, appearing thoroughly amused at this whole spilling-the-beans conversation. 

"Don't call me that," Lily said irritably, but nonetheless she did as she was told. "It was simple, really—" Chase snorted derisively at this comment "First I cast a Dream Charm on James and Sirius when you all were fast asleep in your dormitory, then Chase put a little twist in it so that their dreams would be transformed into nightmares…then we finished it off by performing a simple Confundus Charm that would activate once they woke up."

Comprehension dawned in James's eyes. "Sirius and I are the heaviest sleepers in the first year boys' dormitory, so you knew that nobody would be around when the charm kicked in to help us or at least run to a teacher," he said. 

"Exactly," Chase agreed. "Your wake-up time is simultaneous with the students eating halfway through their breakfast, so it also guarantees the complete presence of the whole student body and faculty who witnessed the prank." 

Sirius shook his head. "You really took time to plan this all out, didn't you?" he said disbelievingly. 

"Of course. Pulling a prank on the school pranksters has to be foolproof for it to be any good," Lily told him smugly. "And with such a grand finale as that pose you two had with Professor McGonagall in front of the High Table with the whole school looking on, I'd say it got excellent marks." 

Chase stood up. "Oh yeah, that reminds me. Celeste should be finished developing those pictures right about now." 

Sirius looked up at her quizzically. "Pictures? What pictures?" 

Chase grinned at him. "The ones she took of you two clutching McGonagall, yelling, crying, and looking like you were just about ready to pee in your pants…" She turned and sprinted away, just as Sirius was scrambling to stand up and run after her. 

"HEY!!! Come _back here! Tell me where those photos are!!!" Sirius was heard screaming after her as the two of them tore across the grounds. _

The last thing the three remaining first years by the lake heard was Chase's fading laugh and Sirius' yells. 

Remus and Lily watched with identical grins as their friends disappeared into the castle. James sighed, and Lily turned to look at him. 

"What's up with you? Or _down with you, as the case may be," Lily added, smiling slightly._

"Pretty much everybody knows you were the one who did that to us, huh?" James said.

Lily raised her eyebrows at him. "Yep."

"Well, Lily Evans, let me just say this. Welcome to popularity." 

*****  

And popularity it was. Everybody was so impressed with the famous school pranksters being pranked that Lily's reputation rose from a nobody to a funny and down-to-earth Charms genius who managed her mischief well and was praised for it. And the bonus was, she got to hang out with the very troublemakers she had paid back with a brilliant practical joke. As Sirius said, she was "a valuable asset to a group of magical mischief makers striving to liven up the many boring school days to come." 

She still couldn't figure out why the social ladder was like that—one day you're acknowledged as a geek, next moment you're known as one of the most popular kids in your year. She didn't know why it was that people quickly change their minds about you once you had done something they didn't expect you to. 

Still, Lily knew better than to follow the crowd just for the sake of fame, and she knew that among the many faces who either admired or despised her, there were only a few that mattered, and had in fact been obtained along the road to her popularity: her friends. 

~EnD mEmOrY sEqUeNcE… bAcK 2 pReSeNt, 6Th MwPp YeAr~

"Well, that about wraps it up, everybody. Thanks for all your input. Speaking of which, you've been rather quiet this meeting, Lils… Lily? Lily!" 

Sixteen-year-old Lily snapped out of her trip-down-memory-lane thoughts and turned her head to the source of the voice—James Potter. "Um…what?" 

Chase waved her hand dismissively. "Never mind it, James, Lily's head was just up in the clouds again. Probably worrying about how this meeting messed up her pre-N.E.W.T.s study schedule. You know how frenzied she gets when she's only got…half of this school year and the whole of seventh year to read and analyze every wizarding school book known to man." 

Lily whacked her friend on the arm. "I am _not _that bad," she protested. 

"You're right. I forgot, I should've reserved that line for Celeste…" 

This comment in turn earned Chase a slap on the shoulder by her twin, and what followed was a brief sisterly debate on advanced studying versus cramming till the last minute. The marauders and Lily laughed at their antics for a while until Chase ended their banter by saying "The least you could do is stop making yourself suffer by diligently studying for the N.E.W.T.s when we're actually in the proper year for it." 

"So, what _were you thinking about that had you so distracted?" Peter asked Lily. _

Lily grinned, glancing particularly at James and Sirius. The latter pair shifted uncomfortably in their seats as if they knew what was coming. "Oh, you know…just remembering old times… our first year in Hogwarts when we all met, in fact." 

Celeste's eyes lit up, and Chase tried to suppress a snicker. "You mean the time when—"

"Gee, look at the time, we'd better get to bed, got to be all rested up tomorrow," Sirius interrupted loudly, standing up at the same time as James, who looked as eager to leave as him. 

"Aw, guys, what's the rush? Tomorrow's Saturday anyway…" Remus said, an evil and very un-Remus-like smile on his lips. "Might as well let Lily explain what _exact memory she was reminiscing about in full detail, just for old times' sake." He leaned forward and pulled his two friends back into their seats. _

James gave him a death glare. "We have some-uh, important stuff to do tomorrow, researching spells in the library, like." 

"Don't worry about that, I'll do it," Peter piped up. "You guys do all the actual work anyway, and Sirius said that researching was my job in this prank." He and Remus exchanged grins for their well-placed…assurances. 

"I'll get my photo album, the one with the best pictures right smack in the middle of it," Chase volunteered, jumping up from her armchair and scurrying to the girls' dormitory, chuckling to herself. 

Sirius and James squirmed in their seats, knowing very well what she meant by those "best pictures" in the heart of the album. No doubt they would be the butt of jokes tonight… 

Lily smiled contentedly as Chase came back and the gang (minus James and Sirius) started animatedly recalling the tale of the Payback Prank. Their boisterous sniggers and loud comments on James' and Sirius' hilarious behavior at that particular time attracted the attention of the whole common room. 

Yes, there was nothing quite like being in the position that Lily was in right now. Atop the popularity scale, with the best memories of school that she could ever remember. 

**ThE**** eNd.******

**A/N – **Finally! I finished a fic that's less than ten chapters long! Thanks to everyone who supported this story…including those who started reading it but had forgotten it because of my terrible updating skills… -_-;; You guys are the best!  


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